Silicon Valley food fans who have a taste for the extravagant will soon have the opportunity to immerse themselves in a whole new dining experience thanks to the Chinese restaurant iChina at the Westfield Valley Fair mall in Santa Clara. It is about to unveil its much-anticipated virtual reality dining room that is called the ‘VR Realm,’ which suits Silicon Valley’s high-tech roots perfectly. According to Eater SF, it is a 275-square-foot dining space that “consists of a full-fledged sensory immersion and a tasting menu that comes with a hefty price tag: a minimum of $4,500 for 10 people.”
Photo Credit: iChina/Westfield Valley Fair
The room has eight high-tech video projectors that beam stunning, crystal clear images onto walls that are made of white leather. The images also float across a huge, marble, conference-style table. The scenes are constantly moving and changing which will give diners the sensation that they are inside much more than just a four-walled room.
It’s unclear how much the VR Realm cost to create, but the price tag had to be large. In iChina’s eyes, the gamble to create the experience will pay off once big-name corporate clients hear about it. “We wanted to bring this to Silicon Valley. It made sense. The people and clientele here, they want experiences like this. It was definitely an ambitious project, but we’re excited for it to come to life,” iChina executive chef Eddie Lam tells Eater.
Through the use of projection mapping, spatial data, and integrated audio, iChina has created 11 scenes, like a koi pond, a bamboo forest, a cherry blossom garden, and a water lantern festival, that are meant to be paired with corresponding menus. Additional landscapes are being created and can even be customized to feature logos of companies who want to impress staff members or new clients during offsite meetings. “Many of my teammates fly in from outside of California for these offsites and are excited about experiences like this — ones that are unique to the locality of Silicon Valley and are rooted in tech,” says Silicon Valley tech worker and iChina customer Parag Patel, speaking to Eater.
Photo Credit: iChina/Instagram
iChina says that menus can also be customized to suit the specific tastes of the customer group that makes reservations. So far, there are only a handful of restaurants around the world that offer this new type of VR dining experience. The exact opening date of iChina’s VR Realm has yet to be announced but it is expected to start operations by the end of the month.
